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Dana White says he’s been straight-up honest about the way he’s promoted Toney/Couture at UFC 118
By Zach Arnold | August 26, 2010
Yet another entertaining interview at MMAFighting.com, but it is long so if you do watch it you’ll need to dedicate some time to it. A couple of takeaways from it obviously will include the fact that he forgot what happened to Nate Marquardt and had no idea why Gabe Ruediger is back in the UFC.
The part that those in the media who have been writing about Shane Carwin situation should focus on is his comment towards the end of the interview where he tries to defend Shane by saying that he’s passed all of his required athletic commission drug tests.
Transcript available in full-page mode.
ARIEL HELWANI: “Let’s just put the spotlight on you for a second here. This guy who was a bellhop at a local Boston hotel, I mean, you grew up on the mean streets of Southie, I believe it is. What does it feel like to be standing here in front of all of these people, coming back home President of the UFC?”
DANA WHITE: “It’s cool. I don’t look at it that way, you know, when I come back here, a lot of my friends and people that I worked with are all still working at the hotels so you know we hang out and talk about the old days. Last night, actually, there’s a company called EJ Paving here in Wakefield, Mass, I used to pave roads, too. I did that for a little while with these guys and we all got to dinner, the whole company came down and had dinner with me last night and hung out and talked about the old days so it’s good to be home.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And here’s the big question — are you staying at the same hotel which you worked at many moons ago?”
DANA WHITE: “No, I’m actually at the Four Seasons.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “That’s funny because I’m at the Airport Hilton. The UFC suggested that we stay at the Airport Hilton. We come to Boston. What’s up with that?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, uh, our CFO booked everybody at the Hilton, the dumbest move in the history of the company.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Really?”
DANA WHITE: “Really, yeah. They’re at the Airport Hilton. Over at the airport you have to drive through the tunnel in traffic to get over here into Boston to go to the event. Yeah.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Fired up over this.”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah. Not one of our better moves.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “All right, let’s talk about an interesting move. James Toney making his UFC debt. We were there at UFC 108 when he came up to you and was stalking you and all this stuff. You finally made the move and then a few months later you said, you know what? I don’t know why I made this move. Well, have you sort of convinced yourself a s to why James Toney in the UFC is a good idea?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, well I didn’t know uh… when we were sitting in my office that day, we were sitting there with an overweight James Toney talking this, that, and everything else about what he knows. I didn’t know how serious he was going to take this thing. Well, anybody who saw Toney back when he started chasing me around and sees Toney now, Toney’s in great shape. He’s a real guy and the history, you know, of people talking smack and a boxer saying this and that about the UFC. This is the only guy that’s actually stepped up, signed on the dotted line, and went out and seriously trained for this thing so… you know, what I’m expecting on Saturday night is not a boxing match. It’s not an MMA match. It’s a fight. There’s going to be a fight on Saturday night with those two.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “That said, you take the reputation of the sport very seriously. Is a part of you a little nervous that it just won’t look good out there, that you know Couture takes him down and finishes him in 30 seconds. Wouldn’t that kind of bother you?”
DANA WHITE: “No, I built a great card around this fight just for that and listen… let’s be honest, and let’s be realists here. What I expect, have you heard me at any point during this you know my PR for this fight saying, ‘Let me tell what folks, tune in Saturday night because you’re going to see a war,’ no that’s not what I said. What I think is going is happen is Couture’s going to double-leg him, put him against the fence, and smash him. Or submit him. BUT… you got to give it Toney, Toney could clip him. Toney could go out there and could hit him with something and could catch him. Anything can happen in a fight. But in no way, shape, or form have I… James Toney picked a fight and he got one.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You do millions of interviews and a lot of people always ask you, who’s going to win? This guy or this guy, who do you want to win, this guy or this guy? You’re always neutral. But for thsi fight, it doesn’t sound like you’re neutral. Why are you sort of picking Randy Couture?”
DANA WHITE: “Listen, he’s… James Toney is right now, I guess you could say, he’s a UFC fighter, too. He’s under contract. But, you know, James Toney, I mean let’s be honest here. Let’s be real about this. James Toney didn’t work his way up through the smaller organizations and get into the UFC and beat some key guys and get a shot at Randy Couture, the legend in Mixed Martial Arts. James Toney came out, called me a [expletive], this and that, I used to get knocked out in the streets of Boston all the time, this sport sucks, these guys could never hang, he picked a fight. He picked a fight and now he’s got a fight and we’re going to have a fight on Saturday night. I got the phone call from Randy Couture. Randy Couture said if this happens, I want this fight. So here we are today, you know, this isn’t really about the UFC and about you know watching out for the sport. People know what they’re getting on Saturday night. I’ve been straight-up honest about the whole thing and how I feel about it but I built a great card around it. I mean, the first fight on PPV is Nate Diaz and Marcus Davis. I mean, people are already telling me to write the check to give them Fight of the Night, you know what I mean? Then you got Kenny Florian and Gray Maynard. You got Palhares versus Nate Marquardt and Toney and Couture which whatever you want to say about this fight, to be honest with you, I’m nervous and excited about it, OK? I have some personal investment in this thing. If I have to deal with James Toney for three months I’m going to kill myself. And then obviously Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn and what I love about this fight is the controversy from the first one. You can tell Frankie Edgar’s aggravated with this whole ‘this is a fluke’ thing and BJ wants to come out and redeem himself again so that should be an amazing fight.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You just ran through the whole card here. We can finish up the interview but I know you got a lot on your plate. Marquardt/Palhares has been moved to September 15th, replaced by Maia/Miranda.”
DANA WHITE: “Are you [expletive] kidding me? I’m glad I didn’t say that today at the press conference. That would have been…”
ARIEL HELWANI: “It’s the main event because of Alan Belcher getting injured. C’mon Dana, you’re so excited to be here that you forgot.”
DANA WHITE: “That’s right! No, you’re [expletive] absolutely right. Dude, I’m doing do so many fights that I forget. I swear to God today when I came in and I said, you know, Nate and Marcus Davis should have been here too, I almost said something about the Palhares, later I almost said I should have mentioned Palhares and thank God I didn’t.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “All right, final question on James Toney. He has said that if he wins or loses on Saturday night, he’s going to after the Klitschko Brothers or David Haye in boxing. If he does win, though, will you try to convince him to stay in the UFC and fight another big contender at Heavyweight?”
DANA WHITE: “I don’t know, I mean we’d have to see where it is. Listen, I got into this deal with James Toney knowing this guy is a boxer and that’s what he does and I think, too, to be honest with you, when this whole thing started and James Toney came out, people are whatever, I think that MMA fans you know kind of like Toney, too, you know and when he leaves here and goes and boxes, maybe a lot of these MMA fans are going to follow him and watch him box.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “The first time we saw Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn, slightly controversial in Abu Dhabi. Which fighter are you expecting to step up his game on Saturday night?”
DANA WHITE: “I think that, you know, Frankie Edgar’s always consistent, man, that kid comes in, he’s a million miles an hour, he goes after it. BJ Penn is, you know, you don’t know which BJ’s going to show up. The Worldbeater that’s been in phenomenal shape jumping out of a [expletive] swimming pool with no hands, you don’t know what guy you’re going to get but… until he loses. After a loss, you usually expect to see the best BJ Penn ever.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “So in a way this was probably a good thing for him? Sort of reinvigorated him?”
DANA WHITE: “You know, how many times have we said that in 10 years? It’s always it takes something to get the fire lit up under BJ again and I believe this did.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Now you’ve said that if Gray Maynard wins on Saturday night that he gets a shot at the title. If Kenny Florian wins, though, does he also get a shot? Because he just lost his second title shot just a year ago at UFC 101.”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, I know. Here’s the thing with Kenny Florian, I say this all the time. Kenny Florian, when he comes out on Saturday night and fights, he’s going to come out like an animal, man, he comes out and goes after you like he’s trying to finish you. When he’s in a title fight, he always does some weird [expletive], runs around or pushes you against the fence or doesn’t fight like he normally fights. So, hopefully, if he wins and gets a title shot again, Kenny Florian’s going to come out and fight like Kenny Florian.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Gabe Ruediger is making his return to the UFC and a lot of guys who leave The Ultimate Fighter, especially the way he did, don’t usually get called back. Why’d you give him another shot?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, that’s a good question, you know. You’ll have to ask Joe Silva that one, that’s a Joe Silva call.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “He looked good on the sort of minor league circuit, sort of speak, maybe he just wanted him to give him another shot but it wasn’t something that you decided, right?”
DANA WHITE: “No. No. That was Joe Silva. Joe Silva brought him back and put him in this fight with Lauzon. And that’s fight going to be on Spike. That’s going to be one of the prelims on Spike.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You announced and of course the Ontario Government announced MMA finally going to be legal in Ontario. When are you going to make your debut in Toronto and is there a chance GSP/Koscheck gets moved to Toronto?”
DANA WHITE: “Um… no.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “No to GSP/Koscheck?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, but I’m pumped, I’m excited for uh… I’m excited for this fight, you know, I’ve wanted Toronto as long and as bad as I’ve wanted Boston. I think that when we do the event there it’ll be the biggest Mixed Martial Arts event in North American history. I think it will be a long time before that record’s broken and, um…”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Any change you do it at the Rogers Centre (Sky Dome), which is home of the Blue Jays?”
DANA WHITE: “I don’t know yet. We got to figure that stuff out.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You know when you’ll make your debut, sort of…”
DANA WHITE: “I have no idea.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “I haven’t you heard comment on the Shane Carwin story yet. Is there anything you can say about it?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, what happened is, this is one of… first of all, I’m not… I don’t know enough about it to really get into it in-depth but I know he came up on like a BALCO-type list on a list of guys who did it but this guy’s fought in the UFC now for a long time, under regulation and has never tested positive for anything so while, you know, it’s not a good time for Shane and his family I’m sure, but you know we’ll see how this whole thing plays out.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Pretty good interview. Not too, too many softball questions. I like the answer on Carwin. His name is on the list, but we still do not know the whole story and Dana kinda made that the them of his answer.
On the other hand I think certain people(maybe even myself) would be absolutely killing Coker if he said something similar about Marquardt/Palhares and Ruedigar. Eventhough, runs about a third of the events…
I think Carwin is a user. With that said…
1) He has never admitted to use.
2) He has never failed a drug test.
3) The information about him out there does not prove he has taken PED’s.
So that puts White in a weird position. One in which Carwin is likely a user, but there is no way for him to really crush him without further proof.
Also, this obsession with Olympic style testing has become comical. Only internet geeks care about this stuff. As long as athletes are tested in some capacity, most fans do not care. End of issue.
*the theme…
After reading the part of the interview about Shane Carwin, I was going to say something about how he sounds more like Vince McMahon with each passing month. Then I remembered that even Vince McMahon suspended the wrestlers whose names showed up on the Signature Pharmacy list.
I think the UFC is very lucky this fight is coming while The Expendables is currently #1 at the box office so they can try to divert some attention to Randy being the first UFC fighter to co-star in a popular blockbuster (sorry, Rampage) instead of having to talk about how awful he’s looked since the Lesnar fight.
But even if everybody is deep down embarrassed having to hawk this, and this is just one slight step above Herschel Walker, we’re still going to get 3 hours of Rogan & Goldberg jizzing “CAPTAIN AMERICA~! EXPENDABLES~! 47 YEARS OLD BUT HAS THE BODY OF A 27 YEAR OLD~! THAT MAN IS MY HERO~! PRINCESS~!” Puke. Thank God the rest of the card is so good so I can mentally block this atrocity out.
As for Carwin, remember Dana can spot a steroid user just by eyeballing them if you remember the Sean Sherk situation. He’ll be fine. He gave them a good fight with Lesnar, and as we’ve seen time and time again if you have a technically godawful fight the marks eat up that makes money, Dana would defend you against anything short of genocide.
Also, if Toney knocks out Couture, is Rogan going to give his “THAT MAN IS THE REAL DEAL~!” soundbite?